DEER — M USK-DEER 



2 33 



animal of the approximate size of the Indian muntjac, with a long body, short 

 legs, and light reddish brown hair marked with indistinct rows of black spots in 

 the young. Like the musk-deer, the bucks have no antlers, but long curved tusks 

 in the upper jaw. The does are peculiar in producing from three to six young at 

 a time ; those of other deer generally having only one or two. 





MICHIE S TUFTED DEER. 



Musk-Deer. 



The Himalayan musk-deer (Moschus moschiferus), which ranges 

 all over the Himalaya, whence it extends northward into Tibet and 

 so on through central Asia to Siberia, represents a very distinct group of deer. In 

 this species the bucks attain a shoulder-height of about 20 inches, and are slightly 

 higher behind. The coat is formed of coarse, brittle, pithy hair, the fore-legs are 

 long with narrow, pointed hoofs, of which the outer pair are abnormally long, the 

 tail is short, and the bucks carry long scimitar-like upper tusks. The colour is 

 brown, more or less sprinkled with grey, and indistinctly spotted. Some animals 

 are paler, others yellowish, and in Kashmir there are some with rows of grey spots 

 on their backs. The musk-deer lives alone, seldom more than two being seen 

 together; and inhabits steep mountain-slopes, where it leads the life of a hare, 

 sheltering, like the latter, in a lair made by itself, and feeding in the morning 

 and evening. Very active in its movements, it is enabled to traverse slippery 

 and precipitous rock-surfaces by means of its large lateral hoofs. It leaps rather 



